THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 429 



Many anatomists have measured the bones of the shaft in Europeans, and have obtained 

 an index from 72'4 to 747, the mean being 73'4. In my series of Australians, again, 

 the mean index in the males was 76 "5, which closely corresponded with the results 

 obtained by Topinard, Flower, and Spengel. In the Australians, and still more in 

 the Tasmanians, the forearm is proportionally longer than ' the upper arm as compared 

 with Europeans, and the index in the latter is almost the same as that obtained by 

 myself and others in Negroes. The Tasmanians are, therefore, on the immediate con- 

 fines of the group which I have designated in my Challenger Report long-forearmed, 

 or dolichoherkic. 



Hand. — The length of the skeleton of the hand from the lunare to the tip of the 

 middle finger was 172 mm., the greatest breadth of the carpus was 43 mm., and at the 

 head of the metacarpals of the four fingers 5 1 mm. The carpal bones were well formed ; 

 the metacarpals and phalanges were slender, and the carpo-metacarpal articular surfaces 

 of the pollex and trapezium were saddle-shaped. 



Inferior Extremity. 



As the skeleton of the lower limb takes so important a part in the assumption of 

 the erect and other attitudes of the body, the bones require to be examined more in 

 detail than is necessary with the. upper limb. 



Bones of the Shaft.— The femur had strong ridges and trochanters. The shaft 

 curved forwards ; the anterior surface was convex, the internal was concave, the ex- 

 ternal was more deeply hollowed. The linea aspera had two well-defined lips with an 

 intermediate narrow area. The middle third of the shaft, prismatic and triangular in 

 section, was a good example of the femur a pilastre ; opposite the nutrient foramen 

 the antero-posterior diameter was 28 mm., and the transverse was 24 mm. ; the pilastric 

 index was 115, which expressed the strong projection of the linea aspera. The popliteal 

 surface was faintly concave. 



The head approximated to a sphere, but at the upper and outer part the articular 

 surface extended beyond the outline of the head on to the anterior surface and upper 

 border of the neck and formed an extensor area, which, during extension of the joint in 

 the erect attitude, would have been in contact with the ilio-femoral ligament.* The 

 anterior intertrochanteric line for the attachment of that ligament formed a broad rough 

 ridge which indicated the strength of the ligamentous band so necessary for the pre- 

 servation of the erect attitude. The neck of the femur was only 19 mm, long and 25 

 mm. broad. Below the intertrochanteric line the upper and anterior part of the shaft 

 was expanded laterally and somewhat concave in front (Plate II. fig. 8). 



Many years ago 1 recognised a similar expansion in prehistoric femora from a bone 

 cave at Oban, as well as in some femora of aborigines, especially the Maoris.! 



* See my address "On some distinctive characters of Human Structure" in Reports of British Association, Toronto 

 meeting, 1807. 



t See Reports of British Association, Edinburgh meeting, 1871, p. 160; also Challenger Reports, part xlvii. p. 97, 

 1886 ; also Proc. Soc. Antiquaries, May 1895, p. 415. 



